Ranking Political Science Departments

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>I would like to know the top ten graduate political science departments (public policy and government included) in the nation. This does not include amount of education for value, nor does it include setting. I am talking about performance, professors, prestige, and job output. Here is my list.</p>

<li> Princeton</li>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Stanford</li>
<li> University of Michigan</li>
<li> Oxford</li>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Columbia</li>
<li> Washington University in St. Louis</li>
<li> Dartmouth</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
</ol>

<p>Give your suggestions or amendments! If you can’t name ten, go for five or three.</p>

2

<p>hallucinations: if it's in the nation, why is Oxford on that list?</p>

3

<p>My mistake! Let's make it between America and Britain only!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

4

<p>Georgetown SFS? lol</p>

5

<p>you got me there. amending once again:
1. Princeton
2. Harvard
3. Georgetown SFS (I only place it third because its departments are relatively limited in terms of depth. Of course, the school of foreign service is number one, but on domestic issues, they have yet to churn out more).
4. Stanford
5. University of Michigan
6. Oxford
7. Yale
8. Columbia
9. Washington University in St. Louis
10. Dartmouth</p>

6

<p>hehehe =P i was reading my comment and it seems kinda mean :-/ that wasnt the intent! so haha i was just like i think georgetown sfs is good =P hehe. yea i duno that much about political science hehe</p>

7

<p>out of curiosity, does any one know how good Penn's poly sci dept is?</p>

8

<p>Annenberg school is well known...appears a lot on PBS, etc.</p>

9

<p>Berkeley has a really strong Poli Sci department as well....</p>

10

<p>Here (according to the 2004 USNews rankings, are the top 10 Public Policy/Public Affairs schools:</p>

<ol>
<li>Syracuse University (Maxwell) (NY) 4.6</li>
<li>Harvard University (KSG) (MA) 4.5</li>
<li>Indiana University--Bloomington 4.2
University of Georgia 4.2</li>
<li>Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson) (NJ) 4.1
University of California--Berkeley 4.1</li>
<li>University of Southern California 4.0</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 3.9
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor 3.9</li>
<li>American University (DC) 3.8
Duke University (NC) 3.8
George Washington University (DC) 3.8
SUNY--Albany 3.8
University of Kansas 3.8
University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill 3.8
University of Texas--Austin 3.8</li>
</ol>

<hr>

<p>And here is USNews' ranking of the top 10 graduate programs in Political Science:</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard University (MA) 4.9</li>
<li>Stanford University (CA) 4.7
University of California–Berkeley 4.7
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 4.7</li>
<li>Yale University (CT) 4.6</li>
<li>Princeton University (NJ) 4.5</li>
<li>University of California–San Diego 4.3</li>
<li>Duke University (NC) 4.2
University of California–Los Angeles 4.2
University of Chicago 4.2</li>
</ol>

11

<p>Thanks for the info Byerly. You are always a good (and mostly reliable) source. I was actually suprised, and definitely didn't expect UGA and Indiana or Syracuse to top Princeton. What is the difference between political science and public policy? Also, I might be thinking of undergrad public policy, which Harvard does not offer.</p>

12

<p>how bout hopkins? Between SAIS and its connections in Washington and to the academic community...they gotta be considered a top program</p>

13

<p>There are many opportunities for undergraduates to take courses and/or participate in programs at the KSG.</p>

<p><a href="http://search.harvard.edu:8765/custom/query.html?qt=undergraduates&x=11&y=9&rq=0&custompath=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.harvard.edu%3A8765%2Fcustom%2Fksg%2F&customsite=search.harvard.edu%3A8765&qp=&col=ksg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://search.harvard.edu:8765/custom/query.html?qt=undergraduates&x=11&y=9&rq=0&custompath=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.harvard.edu%3A8765%2Fcustom%2Fksg%2F&customsite=search.harvard.edu%3A8765&qp=&col=ksg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

14

<p>With apologies to all, Columbia's political science department is #1:
<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/05/03/political_science.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/05/03/political_science.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

15

<p>Public Policy is the act of shaping policy, while political science is both a historial overview of politics, evolution of politics, and the political process as a whole</p>

16

<p>"How have the top-rated campuses differed from UC Davis in the shares of their resources they allocated to the social sciences versus other fields? Their strategies vary, of course. Some have made less relative commitment to social sciences than Davis. MIT and Caltech have succeeded by insisting on good engineering, math, and physical sciences, with only a few pockets of excellence in social science. Closer to our strategy is Cornell, the main example of excellence with heavy commitment to biological sciences and agriculture. At the other end of the spectrum, social sciences and the humanities are the main reason why Princeton gets the top rating for overall undergraduate excellence. Six other Ivy’s have done something similar. This is the prevailing success story, even in public universities. Among the public campuses ranked above us, the tendency is for a larger commitment to social science than Davis has given (as we have seen for Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego in Table 2)."</p>

17

<p>What about Rice? I just did a campus visit and they recently opened their new Baker Institute for Public Policy.. it seems pretty prestigious to me, they had pics of Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell, George Bush Sr. and alot of other government bigwigs when they attended the opening of the institute. I also had a talk with the Political Science head who was really nice but made it seem like their PoliSci dept. was really prestigious... then again every school says their schools are the best. Haha.</p>